Smaller Steps
by Hropkey
Summary: Oh, so this is your spot, too? When Yachiru discoveres Hanatarou's hideout in Rukongai, a friendship forms between them, both a little deeper and a little shallower than either of them knows. A fic about how and why people change. Lots of side pairings.
1. Smaller Steps

**Title: **Smaller Steps

**Word/Page Count: **1,699/6

**Author's Notes: **So, in Hropkey's first foray into Bleach fanfiction (hah, I know! So used to this PoT OC stories, huh?), she… does a crack pairing. A COMPLETE crack pairing. This is gonna be a kind of fun, mellow fic- I don't plan on a lot of drama. (HAILEY, YOU CAN STOP SNICKERING NOW.) Lots of thanks to my absolutely wonderful beta, dartigen, who made sure that you, my dear readers, could actually understand the story this time.

**Summary: **As Hropkey steps knee-deep in Bleach fanfiction (as opposed to, you know, neck-deep in PoT fiction), an unlikely friendship brews in Sereitei.

It's common knowledge among the 11th division that the 4th division is full of, well, weaklings. Weaklings who misplaced their zanpakuto. Weaklings who were only good for healing. _Feh. How useless._ _  
_  
And everyone in the 4th division knew that the 11th division was full of violent, idiotic brutes that killed and thought without thinking, without reason. And dear god, all those injuries. Half the people who came into the infirmary were from the 11th division.

They stayed far away from each other, just in case. Because you never know.  
-  
Hanatarou has a spot. Just above his elbow on his left arm; you can only see it when he wears western-style clothing, very small but very noticeable. Most people think it's a freckle, but he knows better.

He knows that when he first joined the 4th division, a 3rd division member had been temporarily paralyzed during a fight. As Hanatarou leaned down to pry the sword from his hands, the blade sliced through his arm. Not wanting to make a fuss, he simply wrapped the wound in cotton and went on his way.

He has another spot, too, hidden away from the rest of the Soul Society. If he didn't know it existed, he would believe it existed.

On the edge of the 1st district of Rukongai, behind a long row of houses, a little bit past the beautiful river that sits there, it's what Hanatarou considers the most beautiful site in all of the Soul Society- a bird's eye view of Karakura Town that the ryohkas accidentally opened up a few months prior . Karakura Town. _It has the highest concentration of spiritual energy in the human world,_ he muses. Of course, it wasn't always like this. Only when Kurosaki Isshin came to town to raise a family.

_Wait,_ he thinks, _that's wrong. It started a year ago, when Kurosaki Ichigo became a shinigami.  
_  
_How odd,_ Hanatarou thinks, _that a place as strange and primitive as the human world would have someone like Ichigo.  
_-  
Kusajishi Yachiru was born in the 79th district of Rukongai- or, rather, discovered there. How she found out about the small cliff overlooking Karakura Town is still a mystery. She sits there, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes more. Kenpachi always knows where she is, of course- otherwise Ken-chan would get worried, and she didn't want that. But just sitting there, watching the people watching the strawberry boy who had made Ken-chan so happy just a few months ago- it made her happy too. She thinks things there that she usually says out loud, things like:

"I hope Ichi and Big Boobs are okay. And Tall Guy and Glasses guy, too. But mostly Ichi."

"And I wonder if they'll let me use that mallet during the SWA meetings again. That was FUN! And loud. But that's okay."

"And Why hasn't Icy-taicho kissed Peachie-fukutaicho yet?"

But mostly she just hoped Ichi was okay.  
-  
Hanatarou had never thought someone would take his spot. It was his, only his; there was never the slightest trace of someone else's reiatsu.

But there sits the fukutaicho of the 11th division, Kusajishi Yachiru, legs folded up to her chest, her shinigami attire hanging off her like a paper bag.

_She looks so small,_ he thinks. _So tiny and skinny and small._

But she notices him first.

Her neck moves slowly, very slowly. Hanatarou can imagine the sound her neck would make if she were an owl. Crick crick crick. But she's not an owl. And the first words out of her mouth are sharp, but not at all birdlike.

"Who are you?"

He starts to say, 'Yamada Hanatarou' but then he remembers what Unohana said to him this morning- to be proud of his position. That being a seated officer in the 4th division is definitely deserving of honor.

So he stands up a little bit straighter and says, "7th seat of the 4th division, Yamada Hanatarou."

And she simply blinks. Simply blinks and mutters something that sounds like 'oh'.

Suddenly she brightens up. "You're Ichi's friend!"

"I-Ichigo?"

"Yeah, yeah, Berry-kun! Is he okay?"

Hanatarou suddenly realizes why Unohana seems to be the only one willing to baby-sit the pink-haired fukutaicho when needed.

"Well, I haven't been down to the human world. Just watched it."

"Oh! This is your spot too?"

_Why, yes, yes it is.  
_  
"Why, yes, yes it is."

"Can we share it?"

_Well, that was unexpected._

Hanatarou had always considered his spot his spot. Not someone else's spot. His. It may be selfish, but in the 4th division you shared everything with everyone. Nothing was ever 'you'. It was always 'us'.

The spot was his only true secret. But a girl barely coming up to his waist has discovered it.

He wants to say no. But he can't. And yet he desperately doesn't want to share.

"How about," he starts, picking each word carefully, "We share for a little bit and see how that works. Okay?"

"Okay!" she cheers. "Oh, and 7th seat-kun?"

"Yes?"

"How do you get back to the 11th division?"

"I'm not exactly sure."  
-  
The 11th division is in uproar.

"WHERE THE _HELL_ IS THAT _BRAT_?" Kenpachi yells through gritted teeth.

Which isn't too unusual, but he says it with this sort of ferocity that makes the whole 11th division cower.

"YOU! _IKKAKU_! GO FIND HER!" he yells. Ikkaku, wants to walk away and cover his ears. But instead, he gives a little grunt and starts searching.

He finds her sitting on a bench outside the 4th division, one hand holding a banana and the other tightly gripping the wrist of the boy next to her.

"Wow, these are so yummy! Hi, pachinko head!" she cheers.

"Ah, Sumimasen, Yachiru-fukutaicho -" Hanatarou can't bring himself to call her by her last name "- How long did you say you were out there?"

"Oh, about 11 hours!"

Hanatarou gulps.

Ikkaku gives Hanatarou a wary glare. "You let fukutaicho out to Rukongai _by herself_? For 11 _hours_?"

"I just met her a couple hours ago! I swear!"

Ikkaku grabs the collar of his kimono, as if to punch him, but instead simply twists his fist to check the insignia. "4th division," he scowls. "Can't expect anything less." He lets go, as Hanatarou falls to the ground. "Let's go, fukutaicho."

As they walk off, Hanatarou stands up, each step slow and painful.  
-  
"Evening, Unohana-taicho," Hanatarou says warmly. "I just need to get a few splints. Don't worry, I'll be quick."

"Ah, Hanatarou-kun." Unohana nods. "What happened?"

"I just twisted my ankle." He sits down in a chair, wrapping each ankle in a splint. Unohana glances over for a moment.

Both of his ankles are bright red and swollen.

What Unohana really wants to do is sit down and put her arm around him, to ask what was wrong like she'd always done. _But he's old enough now to make his own decisions,_ she realizes. _He's old enough now to put his ankle in a splint if needed.  
_-  
"7th seat-kun!" Yachiru is walking toward Hanatarou with Hitsugaya-taicho in tow. "Take her. Please." he says, voice desperate. Hanatarou wants to smile but he restrains himself. Seeing a frazzled Hitsugaya it a rare sight. 

"Don't worry, I'm in the 4th division," he smiles. "It's our turn to baby-sit her today, right?"

"Please. Just take her. NOW."

_Even when he's frazzled, he's still_ _scary,_ Hanatarou realizes, scooping up Yachiru before an early winter comes.

"7th seat-kun!"

"Mhm?" _Why do people always hate babysitting her? She's so cute and small and-  
_  
"Have you ever jumped off a cliff?"

_Well then.  
_  
"Um, no, I haven't."

"Why not?"

_Oh dear._

"Well, because you can get hurt."

"But you're in the 4th division! You heal!"

_Arrgh._

Maybe _this__ is why people don't like babysitting her._ __

-  
After a few hours of babysitting, Hanatarou just wants it to end.

But there's still more.

Yachiru asks questions about anything and everything. She knows no limits, his or her own.

By six o'clock, Hanatarou wants to faint. As Yachiru runs off, he doesn't even make it to his living quarters and simply collapses in the infirmary.

A new girl, Inaka, tiny and ginger-haired, looks and Hanatarou and giggles. "Does he do this a lot?" she asks quietly.

"No," Unohana smiles, pulling a blanket around his shoulders. "Only when he's been babysitting."  
-  
Hanatarou is dreaming.

When Hanatarou was three, he died. It sounds young, but he clearly remembers parts of the human world. Remembers the cold, snowing winters of Hokkaido, holding his mothers hand as they would walk through beautiful parks, and playing hopscotch with his sister and neighbors.

For years and years after he died, Hanatarou kept checking Earth to see how his family was doing. Everyone who'd been alive when he'd been small had died; he did die almost 120 years ago, after all. Most everyone was doing well.

But this night he has a nightmare, an awful, vicious nightmare.

They'd all died- Mom Dad, Ina-chan- but he didn't know. And he went looking for them, but he didn't find them.

They just disappeared. Vanished.

He wakes up sweating under an infirmary blanket. He looks around and realizes he'd only slept for half an hour.  
-  
"Ah, Hanatarou-kun, you're awake. Can you show Inaka-chan how to tie the splints?"

"Sure," he answers. "I just need to get a couple more for me. I think I sprained one of my ankles."

"Oh, that's not very good."

"I'm fine, honestly. But running circles around Yachiru-fukutaicho hurt my ankles when they were already twisted." He pats the ground next to him.  
"Here, Inaka-chan. You put the edge right over your inner ankle and wrap it. It's really easy- you just go up and down like this. Then you tuck it into the top, and there. Now it keeps the ankle from moving too much."

Inaka smiles. "Thank you, Hanatarou-sa-"

"_7TH SEAT-KUN_!" Yachiru hugs Hanatarou around the waist while Yumichika stands at the door, examining his cuticles.

"Ano, sumimasen, Yachiru-fukutaicho, but it's the 3rd division's turn to baby-sit you tomorrow."

"Don't call me that!"

"What?"

"Yachiru-fukutaicho! Call me Yachi-chan! _YA-CHI-CHAN_!"

Hanatarou smiles. "Alright, Yachi-chan it is."


	2. This Isn't An Anime

**Title:** This Isn't An Anime/Akaii-kun

**Word/Page Count:** 1,394/6

Author's Notes: Yeah. You got two titles this time, cause I couldn't choose. I think my dear beta dartigens said it best when she described this chapter as "crazy, but with a little logic". I meant to get this up before I went to New York, but that didn't work. Sorry! Anyways, here it is. Sorry for the shortness. (And by the way, the "Peachie-fukutaicho" comes from the fact Hinamori's first name means "peach".)

**Summary:** Delving a little deeper into a few new friendships, Hitsugaya realizes just how annoying fukutaichos can be when they want to.

Some friendships start out on unsteady footing. Yachiru and Hanatarou's started on an earthquake.

And sometime, earthquakes happen with a reason. This earthquake started from Kenpachi's yells simply radiating over the Sereitei.

_It's a very weird feeling_, Hanatarou decides, _to be the cause of an earthquake. Very weird indeed_.

If Kenpachi Zaraki were slightly more scheming, slightly more evil, he'd probably have thought of a way to keep Hanatarou away from Yachiru. But he isn't and he doesn't, so the proverbial earthquake continues.

-

"_Ha-na-chan!_" Yachiru yells- well, more like screams- as she runs, throwing herself at Hanatarou. Hanatarou doesn't mind being called by a girl's name. Really especially when it comes out of an excited, sugary-sweet voice like Yachiru's. After all, if she wasn't sugary sweet, then what _would _she be?

Hanatarou thinks for a moment. _A little monster._

"Yes?"

"You're baby sitting me today!"

_A lot of monster._

Inaka looks at him and pulls a clipboard over her mouth.

-

"_Ha-na-chan!_" There it was again.

"Yes?"

"I'm _hun-gry_! Can we go get some food?"

"Sure, what do you want?"

"Sushi! _Su-shi_!"

Hanatarou blinks. "Well, uh, I don't think they have sushi…"

"Then I want leek soup." Her voice is strong, affirmative. "And rice and salmon and soy sauce over _everything_."

"Um… okay. I think the eatery's over that way."

"Are you sure? Cause I think it's that way- no, I'm _sure_ it's that way."

"Um." Hanatarou's wrist goes back and forth, back and forth. "I think it's that way. Let's try that first."

-

Hanatarou is right.

After making sure Yachi-chan has gotten her food, he gets some himself - just rice and Miso soup. He isn't hungry.

While walking out, he knocks into another man, splashing soup onto his own kimono sleeve.

"Get out of my way, fourth division," the man growls, pushing Hanatarou to the side. His shoulders hit the wall and come back bruised.

He thinks for a moment.

_'Get out of my way, fourth division.'_ In that man's eyes, Hanatarou _is _the fourth division. He encompasses all of its weaknesses, lack of regularly carried zanpakuto, the chores that they have to do that no other division will do.

But Hanatarou knows better.

He knows they're strong, quietly strong. Half of the shinigami in the Sereitei would be _dead _if it wasn't for the fourth division.

Outside, Yachi-chan is waiting, chopsticks ready. "You took a long time," she pouts.

"Gomen."

They stay like that for a while, silent, with Yachiru's huge, delicious mess and Hanatarou bland, not-quite-so-delicious not-quite-a-mess. It's quiet between them, but neither of them minds. Then Yachiru turns to Hanatarou.

"Hana-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Why hasn't Icy-taicho kissed Peachie-fukutaicho?"

-

"Inaka-chan, have you seen the book I use for Hinamori-kun's lessons?"

"I'm not sure. Is it thin and blue?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm sitting on it."

Unohana gives a gentle laugh and takes the book from Inaka.

"Unohana-taicho?"

"Mhm?"

"Wh-what does Hinamori-fukutaicho need lessons in?" Inaka blurts. "I mean, she's a kido master, her sword wielding's not bad at all and she might need emotional therapy after being betrayed by Aizen-taicho, but she seems to be doing a lot better lately."

Unohana smiles her usual gentle smile. "It's not emotional therapy. I'm teaching her how to play an instrument called the _piano - _you were alive when they had them, correct?"

"Mhm. But why does Hinamori need to learn to play an instrument?"

Unohana taps the cup ice water on her desk.

Inaka gives a little "oooh" and smiles. "Well, I guess that makes sense."

"Oh, and Inaka-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't call Aizen Aizen-taicho anymore. He doesn't deserve that title anymore."

"Hai."

-

"Yooo, Hanatarou-san! Kusajishi-san!" Hanatarou and Yachiru both look up, alarmed, wondering if their eyes are playing tricks on them.

Hitsugaya-taicho is not known for smiling. A contemplating half-grin sometimes, yes, but never a full on smile. But here he is, a large, goofy smile plastered on his face.

If this were an anime, there'd be bright, cartoony flower surrounding Hitsugaya. In pastel colors. _But this isn't an anime, _Hanatarou thinks.

_I hope. _

"What _happened _to you, Icy-taicho?" Yachiru blurts out loudly.

Hitsugaya's face falls quickly. _Well, it couldn't've lasted for too long. _"Look, just give me Kusajishi, okay?"

As confused as Hanatarou is, he knows that unless he wants an early winter, he should do what Hitsugaya says. So Yachiru is quickly thrown over to Hitsugaya.

"But it's Hana-chan's turn to baby-sit me!" Yachiru protests.

Hitsugaya looks up. Then down. Then up again.

_Nope, not a girl. _

"Well, we're switching it," he mutters. "Tomorrow you'll get Hana-chan."

"Hanatarou."

"Whatever. Come'n, Kusajishi-san."

Yachiru glares. "I won't have fun."

-

Hinamori sits at the piano, tapping out the right hand. One-two-three-one-two-three. One. Two. Three. The rhythm is simple but hypnotic and soothing.

When she stops playing, there are footsteps. Then she listens a little closer. It's Unohana-taicho's reiatsu. It's fine. She's safe.

Unohana looks in and smiles. Never mind all the trouble it took to get a piano, it was well worth it, she realizes, watching Hinamori tap out the right hand. Then she wonders when Hitsugaya will kiss Hinamori-kun. They're a hundred years overdue, anyway.

-

"So this is my paperwork. And this is the couch Matsumoto-san always sleeps on."

"Right. Hi, Ran-chan!"

"Oh? Oh, hey Yachiru…"

"Does she always fall asleep like that?"

"Yes. Much more often than I'd like. So you stay here and I'll finish my paperwork."

"...That doesn't sound fun."

-

"_HA-NA-CHAN! HA-NA-CHAN!_"

Hanatarou turns, blinks. "Yachi-chan? But it's only about 2-"

"Today was _so _much fun! Can Hitsu-Hitsu baby-sit me everyday? Please please _please_?"

Hanatarou sometimes wonders why Yachiru is a lieutenant. This is one of those times.

"Well, um, what did you do?"

"I _painted_ his _hair_! WITH _PAINT_! And Ran-chan helped me! Did you know Ran-chan's _awesome_?"

"Um, no, I didn't-"

"But then we had to wash it out. But there wasn't enough room in his office, so we washed it out outside. BUT HANA-CHAN, GUESS _WHAT_?"

"What?" By this point, Hanatarou is thoroughly enjoying this strange conversation.

"We had a really _big_ bucket, and we were pouring water over his head, and then, and then-"

"And then what?"

"_And you didn't let me finish_! And then _PEACHIE-FUKUTAICHO_ WALKS BY!"

"Peachie-fukutaicho?" Hanatarou takes a break from enjoying the conversation to wondering for a moment about who Peachie-fukutaicho is.

"Hinamori, _whatever. _But she walks by! And she starts laughing and calls him _Shiro-chan_!"

"Really?"

"Really really! And his face turns as red as his hair, so Peachie called him _akaii-kun_!" With this, Yachiru is evidently satisfied and crosses her arms in front of her, smug and confident.

"…Face as red as his hair?" _Oh my god..._

Hanatarou tries not to stare when Hitsugaya appears in the doorway, he really tries. But it doesn't work.

He can see the fourth division's eyes wandering from their work to Hitsugaya's hair. And he can see the people staring, open-mouthed.

And then he hears it.

_"Oh my god!"_ There's a crash and a splatter and all sorts of other onomatopoeias.

There stands Inaka, a cup shattered around her.

-

"Hanatarou-san, I-I'm so sorry about this. You didn't have to clean it up."

_"Iie, iie._ It's fine. This happens a lot."

"Let me help. Please?"

Hanatarou blinks. "Um, if you want to…"

"Thank you!" She runs to get a towel and comes back with three.

…_Okay then._

"I hope the paint in Hitsugaya-san's hair washes out soon. It's so weird to see him with hair as red as mine!" Hanatarou can't help but smile at that.

Yachiru hops over. "Hana-chan, are you flirting?"

"No."

"Good." She turns to Inaka. "What's your name?"

"I-Inaka. Why do you ask?"

Yachiru blinks. "You're nice. You need a nickname. Why else would I ask your name?"

Hanatarou leans over to her. "_She's always like this. Don't worry about it._"

Yachiru crosses her legs and ponders. "Inaka. That's hard. Ina-chan is too ordinary a nickname. How about-" here, her face lights up like a candle has been lit- "how about Inana?"

Hanatarou looks over at Inaka. "I like Inana."

"I like it too." Inaka smiles.

-

Once he gets back to the tenth division quarters, redheaded Hitsugaya glares at Rangiku. "You didn't pour the water fast enough. Next time, _you _get Kusajishi."

Rangiku smiles. "I have no idea what you're talking about."


End file.
